H.264

I see a lot of places accepting stuff encoded in H.264, is it mature enough?

Granted I wear glasses, but I did a frame by frame view of video encoded in Photo JPG and H.264 and I couldn't see a difference. And the H.264 encoded version was half the size of the Photo JPG.

I haven't checked, but can we upload H.264 encoded files now? Anyone else encoding in H.264 for other sites?

I dont think so... what places are accepting this format?

Actually, H.264 is accepted here from what I'm seeing. It's also accepted at SXP,Interclips and AlwaysHD.

Read the other thread about issues with HD compression, but I haven't seen it myself.

Is it H.264 editable? I would like to use it but I am afraid the designers won't be so happy with it.

H264 is a great codec for resizing HD footage for variable purposes. It isn't a great codec for editing. I would stick with Photo JPEG for progressive and MJPEGB for interlaced. It is easy to convert into multiple formats with much loss of quality.

I see some people using H264 on files here at P5. They were taken with a 5DmkII - I know one of the people I have referred has sold one with this codec. Should I use H264 with my 5D footage or do you think i should convert it still?

I just purchased CS3 Extended about a year ago and a H264 Mov file causes some of the apps to lockup or crash.

To compare Built-in H264 codecs to HDV go on the Vimeo and compaire the new AVCHD cameras to the HC9 and HV30. vid for vid the HDV cameras blow them out of the water. Thats not to say the codecs in the cameras will improve, I am sure they will but not just now and not in the near future.

Also I have encoded H264 using some of my NLE's and its magnitudes slower than all the other formats. This means more time and more money spent.

People say the tape is slow well I have to say pulling a 32GB worth of data off of a SD card is not much faster and you still have to wory about archive.

As far as purchasing content. I thing the form it is in is important. I have a daughter who uses online content for here work and they will not purchase H264 content.

Also I thoght I would add the following. I have some H264 MOV files and some players dont play them very well. For example the windows Quicktime player can be very choppy , Even the built-in players in Vegas and CS3 can be very choppy. When player with a BlueRay Player like CyberLink BD Player the are awsome. When converted to other formats they also play fine.

"...HDV cameras blow them out of the water"
??? Have you not seen 5d's footage?
This short 'film' was made with the 5d: http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2326

If footage sucks its mostly because of the camera's sensor size, the codec is just for compression or lack thereof.

Even if I had the 5d I would prob color correct and make a photojpeg mov anyway.

Ok I have to say they look very good. And its not even a Video camera. It would be owrth selling all my Nikon gear and getting one of these gems.

Yet at $3K you can put a lot of money into the electronics. Speed is everything when capturing H264. You need the processing power to keep up with the frame rate and I just dont think the consumer cameras are up to the task.